Two Top Galleries to Expand in Chelsea District

Two major Manhattan galleries have announced plans to expand their operations in the Chelsea gallery district.

NEW YORK— Two major Manhattan galleries have announced plans to expand their operations in the Chelsea gallery district: Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, which specializes in 20th-century American art, will move from midtown Manhattan to a newly purchased space; and the Sean Kelly Gallery, which is already in North Chelsea, and shows a high-profile roster of contemporary artists and photographers, including Marina Abramovic, Robert Mapplethorpe, Antony Gormley, Alec Soth and Iran do Espírito Santo, will move several blocks north to a larger space in a historical building near the Hudson Yards.

The Rosenfeld gallery, which has been located on 57th Street since its founding in 1989, has purchased the ground floor commercial space in designer Jean Nouvel’s recently completed west Chelsea building (on West 19th Street and the West Side Highway), notable for its elaborate wrap-around façade of jewel-like, green glass windows. Rosenfeld, who said he felt the gallery had outgrown its original home in midtown, has enlisted architect Richard Gluckman to design the 6,500-square-foot space.

The gallery shows the work of contemporary artists Nancy Grossman and Betye Saar, and handles the estates of artists, including Benny Andrews, John Biggers, Alfonso Ossorio and Bob Thompson.

Owner Michael Rosenfeld told ARTnewsletter that the gallery program will “remain much the same. However, the new space will be larger and more modern in feeling, allowing us to show the artists who we champion in a fresh environment.”

Rosenfeld told ARTnewsletter that he and his wife and gallery partner, Halley K Harrisburg, had been considering a move to Chelsea for several years.

The gallery is aiming to open the space in late September or early October.

Sean Kelly Will Take Over Exit Art Space

Meanwhile, the Sean Kelly Gallery is planning to take over and develop 22,000 square feet of space at the current Exit Art Space building on 10th Avenue at West 36th Street (Exit Art will be closing permanently on May 20).

The move to the two-floor building marks a tripling of space for the Sean Kelly gallery, which has hired architect Toshiko Mori to design it. The building is adjacent to the fast-growing Hudson Yards development, including the expected completion of the Highline elevated park.

The Sean Kelly gallery first opened as a private space in Soho, where it operated from 1991–95, after which it moved to Mercer Street. The gallery first drew recognition for a program including cutting-edge exhibitions by artists such as Abramovic, Joseph Kosuth and Julião Sarmento, and later for showing the work of James Casebere, Rebecca Horn and Callum Innes. In 2001, the gallery moved into a converted, 6,500-square-foot industrial space on 29th Street at the northernmost edge of the Chelsea gallery district.

More recently, the gallery has added artists, including Idris Khan, Nathan Mabry, Kehinde Wiley and Terence Koh, to its roster.